Well, it’s WPC (Worldwide Partner Conference) time again and that means changes to the Microsoft Partner Network. Most years we see several new and changing competencies and this year is no different. With Microsoft’s recent focus on cloud and the phenomenal success of Office 365, however, it should be no surprise that the Cloud Partner programs (Cloud Deployment and Cloud Accelerate / Essentials) are being revised retired.

None of this should be a shock… we’ve heard rumblings since late 2013 that changes were coming. In November, Julie Bennani (General Manager, Microsoft Partner Network) released the timeline for some of the changes announced at WPC in 2013 (see Partner Program Updates. What you need to know). Included was the retirement of the Cloud Essentials, Accelerate and Deployment programs. In January, a Technet article (see Cloud Program Update: Your Questions, Answered) clarified some of the reasons for the changes and how the retirement of the programs would work and how Partners would be affected.

In a post titled “Making Cloud core to the MPN Program”, this week at WPC 2014, Gavriella Schuster (General Manager, Worldwide Partner Group) confirmed the program update and announced some significant changes that will simplify partnering with Microsoft for public and private cloud while providing additional resources at the same time. Unfortunately, some of the differentiation for top Office 365 partners is falling by the wayside as a result… as her article title suggests, cloud is now core to the MPN program and Microsoft will be expecting more and more partners to get on the cloud bandwagon.

Roughly replaces Cloud Deployment. Same as Silver but adds more internal rights, Enterprise Mobility Suite (EMS) and direct-to-partner support by a tele-partner account manager (tPAM).

One of the big challenges for partners working with Microsoft on funding offers (BIF) like the enterprise E3 $40/seat FY2013 offer and more recently the watered-down FastTrack Office 365 offer has been the deployed seat metric. It looks like the competencies are going to use a similar metric for now until Microsoft can come up with a good way to accurately measure “active use” of the service. Right now they judge deployment using the number of assigned seats… just due to lack of a better metric.

The Office 365 Marketplace and Pinpoint still have the existing filters (Cloud Deployment, Top Cloud Experts, Cloud Accelerate, etc.) but I would guess those will be replaced by a simpler “Cloud Productivity” filter or such at some point. When that happens those companies that have fought hard for their premium cloud designations may be a bit unhappy. Hopefully the additional resources like EMS and Signature Phone Support being provided offset the loss though.

Do you ever find there’s a lack of sufficient Office 365 technical and learning resources?

Yeah, me neither.

There is so much available it can be a real challenge to identify what is worth your time and what is not. This isn’t meant to be an exhaustive list but I’m going to hit some highlights of more useful resources. Feel free to add your favorites down in the comments.

Intermediate and Advanced

Achieve certification in Office 365. Concentrates on provisioning, identity management (DirSync), federation and single sign on (ADFS), and configuring the services. Instructor-led training is available from Microsoft Learning Partners to prepare.

This site has virtual click-through labs for Office 365 including for migration of users, enabling federation and more. Unfortunately, the content is for an older version of the service and the 2010-level applications. Still, it may be useful for those who don’t have a demo environment and need more hands-on than the videos and documentation provide.

News about Office and Office 365… a good place to subscribe a RSS feed to.

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I know that’s a lot to absorb, but hopefully my descriptions and rankings will help you make sense of them somewhat. This is by no means an exhaustive list… what did I miss? I’ll add the best ones in and update the article periodically.